Stock Market News

FX round-up: Dollar/yen spikes higher after Fed minutes

Currencies were on the move on Wednesday after the minutes of the latest US Fed policy meeting revealed that "many" on the rate setting Committee were of the belief that if it becomes apparent that their targets will be met sooner than expected then removing monetary policy accommodation should be done "sooner than they currently anticipated".

Having said that, many of those same policymakers also saw a larger gap between current labour market conditions and those consistent with their assessments of normal levels of labour utilization.

The euro/dollar slipped 0.43% to 1.3264. Of significance for medium-term investors, earlier in the day technical analysts at Commerzbank indicated that "while EUR/USD remains below its July peak at 1.3701, our medium-term negative bias will remain intact."

Data was sparse on the ground in the Eurozone, although French Prime Minister Francois Hollande reportedly again railed against an excessively strong exchange rate.

Interestingly, cable was also dragged lower despite what were clearly a more hawkish than expected set of MPC minutes published earlier in the day, given that two members actually voted in favour of a hike in Bank Rate, when no dissenting vote had been anticipated.

Nevertheless, and as Unicredit Research pointed out, "the minutes show that there is a big gap between the dissenters on the one hand and most members on the other. As well, the recent incorporations to the Committee over the last few months show the balance of power now lies with the Governor".

Cable ended the trading session down by 0.13% at 1.6599.

Dollar/yen rose sharply, by 0.81%, to reach 103.76, with the next levels of technical resistance to watch now coming in at the April peak of 104.13 together with the 78.6% retracement at 104.45.

Stock News is provided by Digital Look Corporate Solutions from Sharecast news.
Please read the terms and conditions of useage of this data. Republication or redistribution of content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Digital Look Ltd.

Get a free widget for your website with our latest headlines.

You can now add our live prices and new headlines to your website.The news widget features quotes for Oil prices, spot Gold price and Indices plus a choice of news channel for healines.